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ISRAEL, DESPITE ANTI-ZIONIST PROPAGANDA, “HAS A BRIGHT FUTURE AT THE UN”

Benjamin Netanyahu Speech at The UN General Assembly: Israeli Cool, Sept. 22, 2016— “Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen, What I’m about to say is going to shock you: Israel has a bright future at the UN.

Is Berkeley’s Course on Palestine the End of History?: Ben Cohen, JNS, Sept. 21, 2016  — In his forthcoming book The New Philistines, the Wall Street Journal correspondent Sohrab Ahmari devotes a few paragraphs to a symposium on art and identity convened by the radical magazine, Artforum.

Black Lives Matter's Anti-Semitic Bedfellows: Gary C. Gambill, National Interest, Sept. 13, 2016 — With the Black Lives Matter movement's adoption of a formal manifesto charging Israel with genocide, militant anti-Zionists are threatening to sabotage yet another progressive cause.

Why is Israel Paying US Groups to Shy Away From BDS Fight?: Shmuley Boteach & Amir Ohana, Jerusalem Post, Sept. 19, 2016 — Imagine if the US government were to earmark millions of dollars for fostering democracy in the developing world…

 

On Topic Links

 

Binyamin Netanyahu Kills It At The UN General Assembly (Video): Israeli Cool, Sept. 22, 2016

Fight on Campuses, Don’t Condemn Israel’s Prime Minister: Isi Leibler, Jerusalem Post, Sept. 15, 2016

Institutionalized Antisemitism at UC Berkeley — Facts and Details: Michael Laitman, Jerusalem Post, Sept. 22, 2016

Where Does Black Lives Matter's Anti-Semitism Come From?: Philip Carl Salzman, Gatestone Institute, Sept. 21, 2016

The Political and Social Philosophy of Ze'ev Jabotinsky: Efraim Karsh, Middle East Quarterly, Spring 2001

 

 

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU SPEECH AT THE UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

 Israeli Cool, Sept. 22, 2016

 

“Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen, What I’m about to say is going to shock you: Israel has a bright future at the UN.

Now I know that hearing that from me must surely come as a surprise, because year after year I’ve stood at this very podium and slammed the UN for its obsessive bias against Israel. And the UN deserved every scathing word – for the disgrace of the General Assembly that last year passed 20 resolutions against the democratic State of Israel and a grand total of three resolutions against all the other countries on the planet. Israel – twenty; rest of the world – three.

 

And what about the joke called the UN Human Rights Council, which each year condemns Israel more than all the countries of the world combined. As women are being systematically raped, murdered, sold into slavery across the world, which is the only country that the UN’s Commission on Women chose to condemn this year? Yep, you guessed it – Israel. Israel. Israel where women fly fighter jets, lead major corporations, head universities, preside – twice – over the Supreme Court, and have served as Speaker of the Knesset and Prime Minister. And this circus continues at UNESCO. UNESCO, the UN body charged with preserving world heritage. Now, this is hard to believe but UNESCO just denied the 4,000 year connection between the Jewish people and its holiest site, the Temple Mount. That’s just as absurd as denying the connection between the Great Wall of China and China.

 

Ladies and Gentlemen, The UN, begun as a moral force, has become a moral farce. So when it comes to Israel at the UN, you’d probably think nothing will ever change, right? Well think again. You see, everything will change and a lot sooner than you think. The change will happen in this hall, because back home, your governments are rapidly changing their attitudes towards Israel. And sooner or later, that’s going to change the way you vote on Israel at the UN. More and more nations in Asia, in Africa, in Latin America, more and more nations see Israel as a potent partner – a partner in fighting the terrorism of today, a partner in developing the technology of tomorrow.

 

Today Israel has diplomatic relations with over 160 countries. That’s nearly double the number that we had when I served here as Israel’s ambassador some 30 years ago. And those ties are getting broader and deeper every day. World leaders increasingly appreciate that Israel is a powerful country with one of the best intelligence services on earth. Because of our unmatched experience and proven capabilities in fighting terrorism, many of your governments seek our help in keeping your countries safe.

 

Many also seek to benefit from Israel’s ingenuity in agriculture, in health, in water, in cyber and in the fusion of big data, connectivity and artificial intelligence – that fusion that is changing our world in every way. You might consider this: Israel leads the world in recycling wastewater. We recycle about 90% of our wastewater. Now, how remarkable is that? Well, given that the next country on the list only recycles about 20% of its wastewater, Israel is a global water power. So if you have a thirsty world, and we do, there’s no better ally than Israel.

 

How about cybersecurity? That’s an issue that affects everyone. Israel accounts for one-tenth of one percent of the world’s population, yet last year we attracted some 20% of the global private investment in cybersecurity. I want you to digest that number. In cyber, Israel is punching a whopping 200 times above its weight. So Israel is also a global cyber power. If hackers are targeting your banks, your planes, your power grids and just about everything else, Israel can offer indispensable help.

 

Governments are changing their attitudes towards Israel because they know that Israel can help them protect their peoples, can help them feed them, can help them better their lives. This summer I had an unbelievable opportunity to see this change so vividly during an unforgettable visit to four African countries. This is the first visit to Africa by an Israeli prime minister in decades. Later today, I’ll be meeting with leaders from 17 African countries. We’ll discuss how Israeli technology can help them in their efforts to transform their countries. In Africa, things are changing. In China, India, Russia, Japan, attitudes towards Israel have changed as well. These powerful nations know that, despite Israel’s small size, it can make a big difference in many, many areas that are important to them.

 

But now I’m going to surprise you even more. You see, the biggest change in attitudes towards Israel is taking place elsewhere. It’s taking place in the Arab world. Our peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan continue to be anchors of stability in the volatile Middle East. But I have to tell you this: For the first time in my lifetime, many other states in the region recognize that Israel is not their enemy. They recognize that Israel is their ally. Our common enemies are Iran and ISIS. Our common goals are security, prosperity and peace. I believe that in the years ahead we will work together to achieve these goals, work together openly.

 

So Israel’s diplomatic relations are undergoing nothing less than a revolution. But in this revolution, we never forget that our most cherished alliance, our deepest friendship is with the United States of America, the most powerful and the most generous nation on earth. Our unbreakable bond with the United States of America transcends parties and politics. It reflects, above all else, the overwhelming support for Israel among the American people, support which is at record highs and for which we are deeply grateful…           

[To Watch the Speech or Read the Full Article Click the Following Link—Ed.]

           

 

Contents                                                                                                                                   

                                                 

IS BERKELEY’S COURSE ON PALESTINE THE END OF HISTORY?                                                             

Ben Cohen                                                                                                                      

JNS, Sept. 21, 2016

 

In his forthcoming book The New Philistines, the Wall Street Journal correspondent Sohrab Ahmari devotes a few paragraphs to a symposium on art and identity convened by the radical magazine, Artforum. “Indeed, there was never any real disagreement among the participants, and this was typical,” he writes. “These are discussions among in-the-know artists, academics and critics, who all agree about nearly everything: everyone knows that ‘neoliberalism’ is something bad; that liberal democracy is merely a more subtle form of tyranny; that Western societies are racist and sexist by design.”

 

Ahmari’s insights into radical groupthink in the art world could equally apply to other disciplines in the humanities and social sciences, like literature, international relations and history. The fact that this trend exists is hardly news; the tendency of university teachers to discourage their students from engaging with conflicting or competing views by imposing a mixture of dogma, so-called “trigger warnings,” and intellectual bullying has long been established. But the situation is getting worse.

 

Case-in-point: “Palestine: A Settler Colonial Analysis,” now on offer from the University of California, Berkeley. An activists’ seminar masquerading as a unit of academic study, the course was pulled last week after university authorities determined that it didn’t comply with required teaching standards. This week, it was promptly reinstated following the intervention of a group called “Palestine Legal” on behalf of the course teacher, Paul Hadweh.

 

Interestingly, the web page advertising the course specifies that it’s open to all students and that “no prior knowledge is necessary.” Judging by the themes examined in course facilitator Paul Hadweh’s course, along with the set textual readings, he might just as well have said “prior knowledge unwelcome.” In this course, students are expected to behave like blank pages upon which an uncontested, single truth is engraved – and anyone who says otherwise must, by definition, be a racist, a colonial sympathizer, or a Zionist. There are many reasons why American-Jewish groups are fretting over the course, not least its functional exclusion of students with pro-Israel sympathies. But we also need to understand that at stake here are more than Jewish sensitivities. What this course represents, above all, is an assault upon the method of studying history that has prevailed – and should still prevail – in universities in the liberal democratic world.

 

We can all agree that there are such things as facts. We know there was an American Civil War, World War I and World War II, and that there was an oil shock in the 1970s, and that Grover Cleveland was the only American president to serve two non-consecutive terms. But why these things happened have been furiously contested by historians, and it’s essential to expose students to these sharp differences – which can be based on anything from newly-uncovered archival documents to debates over ambiguities in the writings of the historical figures being studied – if they are to gain a proper grasp of history as a discipline. Not so with “Palestine: A Settler Colonial Analysis.” For a start, the title tells you all need to know. The fact that 750,000 Palestinian Arabs became refugees during the 1947-48 war is subject to only one interpretation: these were natives willfully and violently expelled by European Jewish settlers with a pre-existing plan of ethnic cleansing.

 

Prominent on the course reading list are the writings of an Australian academic, Patrick Wolfe, who defines “settler-colonialism” as “a zero-sum game, whereby outsiders come to a country, and seek to take it away from the people who already live there, remove them, replace them, and displace them, and take over the country, and make it their own.” In the context of Israel and the Palestinians, this framework both precludes and excludes: It precludes any discussion of Jewish indigeneity to Israel, and it excludes any consideration of the refugee question within the broader geopolitical environment of the time, by not even noting that massive and often forced transfers of population were all too common in the wake of World War II, including the expulsion of 850,000 Jews from the Arab world and the deportation of nearly two million Germans from what was then Czechoslovakia.

Even by the standards of its own propagandizing, the course is pitifully weak. Absent are the writings on “settler-colonialism” from such luminaries as the French Marxist Maxime Rodinson, the articles by the collective of Arab and Israeli communists around the journal “Khamsin,” and the book “To be an Arab in Israel,” an autobiographical account by Fouzi el Asmar (hey, if you’re going to study this stuff, you might as well be thorough, right?). Perhaps Mr. Hadweh feels it’s unfair to ask his students to read too much. Or perhaps he feels he can make his point by assigning just one book for each course component; for example, to learn about “The Character of the Zionist Settler-Colonial State,” the only text you need to consult is “Zionist Colonialism in Palestine” by Fayez Sayegh – the lazier students can probably wing it by simply remembering the title…                                                                                                                         

[To Read the Full Article Click the Following Link—Ed.]            

 

Contents                                               

                                           

BLACK LIVES MATTER'S ANTI-SEMITIC BEDFELLOWS                                                                       

Gary C. Gambill                                                                                                                

National Interest, Sept. 13, 2016

 

With the Black Lives Matter movement's adoption of a formal manifesto charging Israel with genocide, militant anti-Zionists are threatening to sabotage yet another progressive cause. Obsessed with spreading demonization of the Jewish state across the Western world by any means necessary and at any cost, time and again anti-Israel campaigners have fought tooth and nail to insert defamatory anti-Israel language into resolutions and bylaws of unions, NGOs, political parties and other institutions advancing unrelated progressive agendas. Time and again, this hijacking has driven more enlightened activists out of the host movement, contributing to its decline.

 

The phenomenon was first evident during the lead-up to the 1991 Gulf War, when many Jewish American peace activists encountered a threatening environment at antiwar rallies due to aggressive anti-Zionist campaigning. "I didn't feel comfortable or safe outside the Jewish contingent," said Betsy Tessler, leader of the Philadelphia chapter of the staunchly antiwar New Jewish Agenda.

 

By the time the next Gulf War came around, militant anti-Zionists had become far more organized and determined not merely to piggyback their issue onto the antiwar agenda, but to push out those who were unwilling to accept it. The antiwar movement was primarily led by two far-left coalitions, International ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Violence) and United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ), an uneasy partnership strained greatly by the former's promotion of anti-Zionist activists before the war even began. When Tikkun editor and leading UFPJ leader Michael Lerner openly criticized the anti-Israeli bent of the demonstrations in January 2003, ANSWER banned him from speaking at its rallies. This led to a splintering in UFPJ and an overall weakening of the antiwar movement.

 

What accounts for the willingness of 'progressive' anti-Israel campaigners to sabotage other progressive causes? Much the same thing happened to the Occupy Wall Street movement that swept through New York and other major U.S. cities in 2011. The official Twitter account of the main OWS leadership in New York briefly endorsed the so-called "Freedom Waves Flotilla" that attempted to break through the Israeli blockade of Gaza in November 2011, while Occupy Oakland had an "Intifada tent" and the official Occupy Boston web site promoted an "emergency march" on the city's Israeli consulate. Mainstream OWS organizers refused to denounce protesters who carried anti-Israeli, and often brazenly anti-Jewish, signs and banners.

 

Daniel Jonathan Sieradski, a liberal Jewish writer and activist who led a well-attended Kol Nidre prayer service across the street from the protests in Zuccotti Park on Yom Kippur, warned that the growing infusion of anti-Israel messaging into official OWS activities was leading "many Jewish supporters of OWS who do not identify as anti-Zionist" to believe "that they could no longer be associated with the movement." "Once this movement becomes explicitly anti-Israel, you'll have effectively alienated three times more people than you'll attract," he predicted. Within a few months, the movement was effectively dead.

 

A related dynamic was evident in the unraveling of Britain's Labour Party this spring, driven by the reluctance of Jeremy Corbyn and others to disavow a small minority of radical anti-Zionists within the party's ranks. Britain's Jewish community, which "once looked to Labour as its natural home," wrote leftist Guardian columnist Jonathan Freedland, one of the country's leading Jewish journalists, "is fast reaching the glum conclusion that Labour has become a cold house for Jews." It's difficult to find a progressive cause that hasn't been compromised in some way by the so-called Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, from the anti-globalization movement to the fight against sexual assault. "BDS destroys everything it touches," observes Cornell law professor William A. Jacobson…

[To Read the Full Article Click the Following Link—Ed.]

 

 

Contents           

WHY IS ISRAEL PAYING US GROUPS TO SHY AWAY FROM BDS FIGHT?

Shmuley Boteach & Amir Ohana

Jerusalem Post, Sept. 19, 2016

 

Imagine if the US government were to earmark millions of dollars for fostering democracy in the developing world but neglect to require that the NGOs receiving the money encourage a positive view of America, or at the very least strenuously disavow ideological anti-Americanism. Congress would quickly and rightly take the administration to task for such folly. No taxpayer should be expected to fund those who hate his or her country, or even those who are ambivalent about opposing the haters.

 

It is with dismay, then, that we – an American Chabad rabbi with a 25-year history of fighting the Israel-haters on campus and a Knesset lawmaker and former Shin Bet (Israeli Security Agency) national security officer – have watched Israel’s Diaspora Affairs Ministry sign off on the disbursement of $22 million for Hillel, Chabad and Olami activities on US college campuses without insisting that the groups first stop shying from confrontation with the forces of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

 

We can only hope that this was an oversight, a fiscal fumble by an Israeli cabinet that has charged a different minister with combating BDS and which is empowered to make such funding decisions without parliamentary vetting. Because otherwise the Diaspora Affairs Ministry risks being perceived as having acquiesced to the thinking that excuses Hillel, Chabad and Olami from fighting for Israel on campus, namely, a belief that Israel has become so toxic on American campuses that any public association with the Jewish state will dissuade Jewish students from joining Jewish activities.

 

To be sure, we both admire and applaud Israel’s new efforts to support Jewish activities on American campuses. Israel is, and should be, the locus and focal point of global Jewish efforts and outreach. That Israeli taxpayers are prepared to fund the spread of Judaism and Jewish identity on American campuses is exemplary and laudable.

 

But the Jewish state is an integral part of any Jewish identity. To disseminate a Judaism that is unconnected to the land of our forefathers and the place of Jewish spiritual longing for millennia is to spread a Judaism that lacks a foundation and soul. Moreover, Jewish observance that lacks Jewish pride always dissipates and disappears. Even if the ministry succeeds in getting Jewish students to become more Sabbath- and kosher-observant, it all risks being lost if students hide their identity in the face of Jewish critics and bigots. Hence, standing up proudly for Israel is part and parcel of guaranteeing the continuity of Jewish observance. There is no Israel without Judaism and there is no Judaism that does not place Israel at the apex of Jewish spiritual longing.

 

Israel is the test of Jewish pride today. And without Jewish pride there can be no authentic, lasting Jewish observance. Yet some in Hillel, Chabad and Olami would have us believe that BDS has won the war for the hearts and minds of American Jewish students, a constituency so crucial for Israel’s future backing in the Diaspora, and all that can be hoped for is to shore up their Yiddishkeit in a setting that’s parve on support for the Jewish state. Chabad and Hillel especially are in a unique position to provide an immediate and effective challenge to the spread of BDS lies, most of which demand Israel’s withdrawal from Judea and Samaria, which all polls show would create a Hamas-controlled terrorist state. That Israel would provide funding that doesn’t demand some degree of response to this demonization of the Jewish state is disappointing, scandalous and mystifying.

 

To be sure, $22m. will buy a lot of Shabbat kugels and bagel brunches. It will be pay for many a community organizer or rabbinic intern at Hillel. It will provide necessary funding for Talmud classes at Chabad or holiday celebrations at Olami. But while these groups are to be highly commended for promoting Judaism, they are dead wrong to think the goal can be achieved by side-stepping their duty to defend Israel. Israel is at the core of the Jewish experience. Its successes reflect Jewish values. Its troubles prompt Jewish soul-searching. The BDS mobs know this, which is why they have carried aloft their few yet vociferous Jews – in hope of driving a wedge between the Jewish people and the Jewish state.

 

But of course, the self-hating Jews of BDS are just fig leafs for legions of antisemites who march for Israel’s demise not because of what it does, but because of what it is: the world’s only Jewish state. Hillel, Chabad and Olami cannot be seen as koshering this wretched masquerade by refusing to stand up to and expose BDS for what it is. The State of Israel has both the right and the duty to demand that any money it provides for Jewish causes abroad bring with it a full-throated and unapologetic endorsement of Jewish statehood in activities that – while rooted in authentic Judaism – are both pro-Israel and anti-BDS.

 

Hillel, Chabad and Olami should make this undertaking publicly to Israel’s Diaspora Affairs Ministry before receiving one Israeli taxpayer shekel. Doing so will not just help Israel, it will also do right by American Jewish students who, seeing their campus leaders fight for what is right, will emerge as prouder and more committed Jews and supporters of the Jewish state. Chabad, Hillel and Olami all want students to more deeply embrace Jewish tradition and observance. Few things are more important. But that commitment will falter without Jewish pride, and the great test of Jewish pride today is the degree to which we stand up for, and defend, the first Jewish state in 2,000 years.

 

CIJR Wishes All Our Friends & Supporters: Shabbat Shalom!

 

Contents                       

           

On Topic Links

 

Binyamin Netanyahu Kills It At The UN General Assembly (Video): Israeli Cool, Sept. 22, 2016

Fight on Campuses, Don’t Condemn Israel’s Prime Minister: Isi Leibler, Jerusalem Post, Sept. 15, 2016—Irrespective of one’s personal opinion of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s remarks on Palestinian “ethnic cleansing” of Jews from any future Palestinian state, Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt’s scornful public condemnation is simply beyond the pale.

Institutionalized Antisemitism at UC Berkeley — Facts and Details: Michael Laitman, Jerusalem Post, Sept. 22, 2016 —Last week’s column, New course at Berkeley University: How to get rid of Israel – Cancelled, made a lot of noise. I received quite a few emails following the column, the majority of which supported the points I made in the column.

Where Does Black Lives Matter's Anti-Semitism Come From?: Philip Carl Salzman, Gatestone Institute, Sept. 21, 2016—The recently published platform of Black Lives Matter (BLM) states that Israel is responsible for "the genocide taking place against the Palestinian people," and "Israel is an apartheid state … that sanction[s] discrimination against the Palestinian people." These statements are anti-Semitic not only because they are false and modern versions of tradition anti-Semitic blood libel, but also because BLM selectively chooses the Jewish State out of all the states in the world to demonize. What has inspired BLM to engage in this counter-factual, anti-Semitic rant? BLM has been guided to anti-Semitism by the concept of "intersectionality."

The Political and Social Philosophy of Ze'ev Jabotinsky: Efraim Karsh, Middle East Quarterly, Spring 2001—Probably no Zionist leader has been so vilified as Ze'ev (Vladimir) Jabotinsky, founding father of revisionist Zionism, the antecedent of today's Likud Party, who has been denounced as an extremist, a militarist, an Arab-hater, and a "Greater Israel" expansionist dreaming of land to the east of the Jordan River.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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